Like the proverbial fish who doesn’t know what water is, we swim in an economy built on money that few of us comprehend, and, most definitely, what we don’t know is hurting us.

Very few people realize that the nature of money has changed profoundly over the past three centuries, or—as has been clear with the latest global financial crisis—the extent to which it has become a political instrument used to centralize power, concentrate wealth, and subvert popular government. On top of that, the economic growth imperative inherent in the present global monetary system is a main driver of global warming and other environmental crises.

The End of Money and the Future of Civilization demystifies the subjects of money, banking, and finance by tracing historical landmarks and important evolutionary shifts that have changed the essential nature of money. Greco’s masterful work lays out the problems and then looks to the future for a next stage in money’s evolution that can liberate us as individuals and communities from the current grip of centralized and politicized money power.

Greco provides specific design proposals and exchange-system architectures for local, regional, national, and global financial systems. He offers strategies for their implementation and outlines actions grassroots organizations, businesses, and governments will need to take to achieve success.

Ultimately, The End of Money and the Future of Civilization provides the necessary understanding— for entrepreneurs, activists, and civic leaders—to implement approaches toward monetary liberation. These approaches would empower communities, preserve democratic institutions, and begin to build economies that are sustainable, democratic, and insulated from the financial crises that plague the dominant monetary system.

REVIEWS AND PRAISE

"Our world is moving to increasing and dominant usage of distributed networks, and the associated peer-to-peer dynamics of people aggregating around the construction of common value. We have the communication infrastructure, but we still need to build robust peer-to-peer energy grids, AND, just as important, we need to be able to create peer-to-peer currencies that strengthen resilient communities in the context of turbulent globalization. To undertake the latter task, one voice has been consistently investigating what determines success and failure regarding the social production of money. That voice is Thomas Greco, who not only offers the definitive book on the subject, but offers also the condensation of a whole life of research and engagement with the topic. The time of crying in the wilderness is over for Thomas Greco: this is the age where these ideas will be practically implemented. It is rare to find the combination of quality theory and robust implementation in one book, so please do acquire this gem."--Michel Bauwens, founder of the P2P Foundation

"A stimulating and well-balanced work. Here, the serious student of monetary reform will find the mature reflections of a leading advocate of credit clearing. Thomas Greco's analysis of the modern monetary problem is excellent, his solution is practical and founded upon basic principles of justice. Policy makers and communities across diverse cultures and religions can learn much from this detailed and eloquent book. I strongly recommend it."--Tarek El Diwany, author of The Problem With Interest and Partner at Zest Advisory LLP

"For those who would survive the sustainable cynicism of monopoly capital, now that the usurpers are caught red-handed and the mask of democracy has slipped, Greco provides the tools for regeneration of societies. Can we conceive of a new culture? Yes we can. Here are the tools for its monetary system, and it will thrive."--Anton Pinschof, organic farmer in Brittany (member of FNAB, French national federation of organic farmers), and co-founder of CESC, the Cliffs Edge Signalling Company (cesc.net)

"Thomas Greco dedicates his new book to the causes of social justice, economic equity, personal liberty, world peace, and ecological restoration. He begins by showing that none of these can be achieved until we give birth to a just and sustainable paradigm for exchanging energies. Clearly written, the roots of our current financial predicament are revealed, and the need for something better is lucidly explained. The serious reader will appreciate the author's long experience with alternative currencies: this book is a concise and efficient way to get up to speed on the history of alternatives to conventional 'money' as well as enter the new world of technologically liberated exchange that has the potential to bring about the end of money as we have known it."--Paul Grignon, creator of the movie Money as Debt

"Greco ... outlines the increasingly familiar story of how things got so bad, and he tells it as well as anyone has ever done.... More than that, Greco writes about how to change what has gone wrong. His credentials as an engineer, college professor, author, and consultant are impeccable. His book is among the most important written in this decade. It is truly a book that can alter the world and, if taken seriously, give large numbers of people a practical way to survive the gathering catastrophe."--Richard C. Cook, author of Challenger Revealed and We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform

Tom's book is a chilling and gripping narrative that examines the history and current condition of our 300-year-old unbalanced and unsustainable monetary system. He goes on to propose specific changes that, when adopted, will transform our money system into a more user-friendly platform of exchange that will benefit all of the world's people. Simply a must read for everyone."--David Wallach, President, International Reciprocal Trade Association Global Board of Directors

"Tom Greco's The End of Money and the Future of Civilization is essential reading for everyone who yearns to restore sanity to our financial dealings and re-humanize our global economy. Greco details the abuses inherent in the widely misconstrued concept of 'legal tender,' and helps us understand the real roots of the current meltdown. He then offers unique tools for creating workable, enduring solutions. His story is compelling, and his lucid, accessible style makes it a rewarding read. The book's a true game-changer, and its appearance couldn't be more timely."--Philip Beard Professor emeritus, Sonoma State University, and co-founder of Sustaining Capital Cooperative, Sustaining Technologies LLC, and Sonoma County GoLocal Cooperative

"If anything could save this civilization from the calamity to which its economic madness has led it--the unrelenting pursuit of materialism, the starkly inequitable division of wealth, the despoliation of the earth for profit--it would be the widespread adoption of the wisdom embodied in Tom Greco's clear and forthright new book. The fact that I doubt such a thing will happen, I am constrained to say, does not diminish the value of reading it."--Kirkpatrick Sale, author of Human Scale and After Eden: The Evolution of Human Domination

"We should be grateful to Tom Greco for his constructive and innovative thinking at a time when new ideas are badly needed."--Rodney Shakespeare, Visiting Professor of Binary Economics, Trisakti University (Jakarta, Indonesia)

"Many of the world's ills are symptoms of centralized control of our media, governments and resources by a small, invisible group of people. How can so few control and impoverish so many? Currency systems are an important source of this centralized power. Tom Greco's latest book helps us unpack the financial mysteries and consider our alternatives. There can be no question about it--Tom Greco is the pit bull of the alternative currency movement."--Catherine Austin Fitts, Solari Investment Advisory Services, LLC

"I have found Tom Greco to be a trusted and authoritative source of wisdom on the topics of the flaws in mainstream money and of the possibilities for alternatives. Even after years of garnering wisdom from Tom for my work with Toronto Dollars, his advice in this new book reaches a higher level of clarity and practicality."--Joy Kogawa, cofounder, Toronto Dollar

"Greco continues to educate us about why and how we, the people, have the power, the knowledge, and the tools available to us to civilize monetary systems around the world, thereby restoring an essential human element to our existence."--Krista Vardabash, former Executive Director of the International Reciprocal Trade Association

"Maybe you've noticed a slight bit of turmoil in our national and global financial system? This book cuts to the very core of the trouble--and points toward several pathways toward that might allow us to slowly climb out of the pit into which we've stumbled."--Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy

"For the growing ranks of monetary reformers worldwide, long-time expert Tom Greco's deeply researched new book is essential reading. This gripping blend of theory and practicality lays out all the options for creating saner money and credit systems--and the real possibilities in today's information age of electronic trading and exchange, at last, without the need to use money at all."--Hazel Henderson, author of Ethical Markets and President of Ethical Markets Media (USA/Brazil)

"If there is one thing people everywhere should drop everything to learn right now it is how the money system works, why it is failing and what to do to survive and even thrive. The reason they don't is because it has been so difficult to get and to understand this information. Against all odds, Tom Greco has filled this important need with an easy read including the most practical advice for getting you through the crisis into a more secure, healthier and happier future."--Elisabet Sahtouris, Ph.D., evolution biologist; futurist; author of EarthDance: Living Systems in Evolution

"Greco precisely identifies the conflation of interests and confusion of thinking that have given rise to today's monetary muddles and proceeds to elucidate a viable strategy by which we all, as individuals and in association with one another, can unravel the tangle and build the basis for mutually profitable exchange."--Arthur Edwards, Director, Centre for Associative Economics

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thomas Greco

Thomas H. Greco, Jr. is the director of the Community Information Resource Center, which he founded in 1992. CIRC is a nonprofit consulting organization and networking hub dedicated to economic equity, social justice, and community improvement, specializing in community currency and mutual credit design, development, and implementation. He is a former engineer and professor of business administration. Tom's books include Money and Debt: A Solution to the Global Crisis, Money: Understanding and Creating Alternatives to Legal Tender, and The End of Money and the Future of Civilization. For more information on re-creating money systems, visit another webpage of Tom's, Reinventing Money (reinventingmoney.com).

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ALSO BY THIS AUTHOR

Cash. Loot. Scratch. Lucre. Bread. Coin. Scrip. Moolah. Green. We all think we know intuitively what money is, and what it can do for us. Tom Greco, director of the Community Information Resource Center, understands and explains money on an eye-popping, fundamental level. Moreover, he provides a roadmap on how to make alternatives to the "legal tender" work for individuals, communities, and local economies.

Money will set your mental gears spinning with fantastic ideas. This book explains the mysteries and realities of money in clear and accessible prose, and reveals the true workings, and alarming fragility, of our existing financial system. It also describes concrete and realistic actions that individuals, businesses, social service agencies, and governments can take to enhance productivity and purchasing power, to protect local economies from the ravages of globalization, and to strengthen the bonds of community.

Money is a radical critique of our existing financial system, but also a practical and inspirational how-to manual for creating a vibrant and effective community currency system.
You'll learn:

The truth about how money is created, and what it actually represents

Why we're all in debt

How the financial system is structured to inevitably transfer wealth from the poor to the rich

How to start a financial revolution in your local community

A retired professor of business and economics, Tom Greco has spent twenty years studying community currency systems around the world, including historical models (such as during the Great Depression), and the scores of contemporary examples now operating in the United States, Canada, Europe, South America, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. He helped establish the Tucson Traders currency in Arizona, and he has served as a consultant for many others. No pie-in-the-sky idealist, Greco offers a realistic vision of how healthy local economies can be supplemented with flourishing community currencies.

Tom Greco PART 3 of 3 at The Economics of Peace Conference Sonoma Ca 2009

Thomas Greco @ Vienna

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Not-for-profit enterprise will be at the heart of the global economy by 2050. This is the compelling vision outlined in How on Earth, based on a growing body of evidence that the world is shifting toward an ‘economics of enough’. Providing a groundbreaking exploration of how a global economy can flourish in a not-for-profit world, the authors develop a viable model for a new triple bottom line—people, planet, not-for-profit—that embodies the evolution we have been waiting for.

From construction and manufacturing, through to software development, food catering and retail, the not-for-profit ethic is permeating global commerce. Not-for-profit entities increasingly generate their own income, rather than relying on philanthropy. Cooperatives, community interest companies, government-owned corporations, social businesses and social enterprises all show how reinvesting, rather than privatizing their profits, is the healthiest and most sustainable way to manage a business.

In fact, many not-for-profit (NFP) enterprises are now outperforming their for-profit counterparts - connected to a process described by economic theorist Jeremy Rifkin as ‘the eclipse of capitalism’. In the U.S., for example, credit unions offer their 96 million members consistently higher returns on deposits, lower loan rates and, since the beginning of the 2008 financial crisis, have increased their total assets by 30%, compared to a 6.5% increase by for-profit banks during the same period. Indeed, not-for-profit entities have marked advantages in terms of finance, human resources, productivity, innovation, governance, value creation and market reputation.

The rise of NFP business provides the first real opportunity to address the dual crises of our time. Financial inequality, as shown in economist Thomas Piketty’s recent work, is an inherent tendency of capitalism. The emerging, global NFP economy embodies a post-capitalist market with the redistribution of wealth central to its operation. Ecological devastation is inherent in any growth-dependent economy on a planet with biophysical limits. By changing the nature of incentive in business, the NFP model enables true ecological sensitivity and stewardship.

Combined with the rise of crowdfunding, collaborative consumption, open source peer-to-peer production, distributed manufacturing, and relocalization, NFP enterprise offers a path to a vibrant post-growth economy. The emerging NFP economy encourages a truly efficient market that builds on existing community strengths and resources. In prioritizing human need, rather than greed, the NFP world economy will reduce overall resource consumption, incorporate ecological and social costs, and require less taxation and government bureaucracy in the process.

The ingredients for global flourishing exist. How on Earth presents a simple yet powerful recipe for the transition to a thriving ‘economics of enough’ that works for all of humanity.

The world is running short of energy-especially cheap, easy-to-find oil. Shortages, along with resulting price increases, threaten industrialized civilization, the global economy, and our entire way of life.

In Confronting Collapse, author Michael C. Ruppert, a former LAPD narcotics officer turned investigative journalist, details the intricate connections between money and energy, including the ways in which oil shortages and price spikes triggered the economic crash that began in September 2008. Given the 96 percent correlation between economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions and the unlikelihood of economic growth without a spike in energy use, Ruppert argues that we are not, in fact, on the verge of economic recovery, but on the verge of complete collapse.

Ruppert's truth is not merely inconvenient. It is utterly devastating.

But there is still hope. Ruppert outlines a 25-point plan of action, including the creation of a second strategic petroleum reserve for the use of state and local governments, the immediate implementation of a national Feed-in Tariff mandating that electric utilities pay 3 percent above market rates for all surplus electricity generated from renewable sources, a thorough assessment of soil conditions nationwide, and an emergency action plan for soil restoration and sustainable agriculture.

More and more entrepreneurs are using food-based businesses to solve social and environmental problems - and yet the majority of them report that a lack of access to capital prevents them from launching, maintaining, or growing their ventures. Raising Dough is an unprecedented guide to the full range of financing options available to support sustainable food businesses.

Raising Dough provides valuable insights into the world of finance, including:

Descriptions of various capital options, including traditional debt and equity, government grant and loan programs, and cutting-edge models such as crowdfunding and community-based alternatives

Guiding questions to help determine which capital options are the most appropriate given the size, stage, entity type, growth plans, mission, and values of an enterprise

Case studies and testimonials highlighting the experiences of food system entrepreneurs who have been there before, including both success stories and cautionary tales

Referrals to sources of capital, financiers, investor networks, and other financial resources.

Written primarily for people managing socially responsible food businesses, the resources and tips covered in this book will benefit social entrepreneurs - and their investors - working in any sector.

America’s average farmer is sixty years old. When young people can’t get in, old people can’t get out. Approaching a watershed moment, our culture desperately needs a generational transfer of millions of farm acres facing abandonment, development, or amalgamation into ever-larger holdings. Based on his decades of experience with interns and multigenerational partnerships at Polyface Farm, farmer and author Joel Salatin digs deep into the problems and solutions surrounding this land- and knowledge-transfer crisis. This book empowers aspiring young farmers, midlife farmers, and nonfarming landlords to build regenerative, profitable agricultural enterprises.